Colors
by Unleashed Reasoning
Summary: What do colors have to do with anything? Depends on what the colors mean.


When she smiles, the sun doesn't shine. Life isn't cliché like that, at least not when it comes to this.

No, when she smiles, it brings a lot of pain, a lot of anger.

Why? Because she doesn't smile for me. Not like that, not like she's actually happy to see me, like I _mean_ something to her. She smirks. She goads me on with a prideful challenge, daring me to make a move, any move… but it's always about fighting.

There was only _once_ it wasn't about rivalry, about being on opposite sides. Only one time… did a true, if timid, smile cross her lips…

I'll never forget that moment. It felt like the world titled, like something had irrevocably changed. I couldn't place what it was. I still can't really decipher it all… but I know how it broke my habits, destroyed my obliviousness. Suddenly… it felt like someone had knocked off a pair of green tinted glasses.

Rose colored doesn't really belong in our world. Not with the two of us. There's green… _so_ much green… and maybe red, the deep dark crimson color of blood, of anger… But, there is no rose color. Roses imply a more gentle and intimate nature, and that has only been a whisper just the once. And it was smashed just as quickly, reinserting a pattern of behavior that forever pits us in mortal combat.

No, green always seems to be the color of our lives. The color of challenge, the color of jealousy, the color… of our eyes.

Green is something we both see every single day, in some fashion or another. There is no way to escape it, to change it. It simply is.

When these metaphorical glasses of green were removed, however, I started seeing more than just the green.

First… was the flicker of orange. An odd color, in a way. It's as vivid and bold as they come. Orange… is the glow of passion, a promise of coming opportunities. It teases the senses with hope, taunting from a distance just always out of reach. It drove me mad, recognizing the constant distance it remained away from me.

Yellow dropped in next. It was mockingly glaring, thrusting pride and expectation into my face and demanding I fall back in line, replace the fallen green glasses and move on. It is blinding with its audacity, rudely pushing itself into the forefront time and time again. I started developing a tick every time I see it in large quantity.

Blue blazed in with solid purity. There is a binding sense of loyalty it its steady gaze, one that speaks of reassurance and reliance. Blue doesn't carry any true aggressive reproach, but it is still a divider with yellow on either side of green.

Purple came last… It carries on its back the weight of guilt, frustration, and confusion. Purple haunts a person, letting the weight of emotion linger like an ugly bruise. Uncomfortable and often distinctly painful when prodded, it is a very heavy color.

People have begun to notice my wardrobe has been lacking in color lately. All the colors seem too loud, and I hate to carry the reminders on my person when I have to see them everywhere else. I've gotten away with blasé answers, but I know it's starting to be long enough that such responses are going to earn further inquiry.

Which brings me to my isolated roost, hiding in the shadows away from the press of the colors around me screaming for my attention.

I don't want to remember the way her skin looks when the sun hits it just right. I don't want to sigh realizing that a flash of a specific color wasn't her trademark and was nothing more than someone else ignorantly flashing it for the world to see. I don't want to fantasize about colors having texture, the urge to touch, to explore tempting me with disturbing frequency. I _don't_ want to dream about what our colors mixing would look like in the wee hours of the morning when the sun winks at us from the horizon.

It's becoming so overwhelming I find myself greatly wishing I'd replaced those stupid green sunglasses.

Because now I can't help but stare at her smirk and wish it was a smile. I want the colors around me to mean more than just a passing decoration to appreciate from a distance. I want to change the whole color scheme around me, muddy it up until they're all a mess and don't seem so important anymore.

It seems rather bleak… Now that I think upon it. Staring at the world from up here with nothing but the shadows to comfort me, I feel very… empty. It's like I've bled all of the color out of myself thinking I was doing it for a reason, and now… there's no colors left for me to give. I feel like I'm taking the colors from everyone around me, but none of them but _her_ have the colors I want.

"So messed up," I murmur, scrubbing a hand across my face.

"This is an odd place to find you," calls a voice.

I can't help the groan that escapes me. "Really?" I roll my eyes heavenward. "Now? Of all times?"

"Talking to yourself is a bad sign you know," she remarks as she walks into my view and lets the sun caress all of her wonderful colors.

"Can we not do this right now?" I ask, grimacing at the smirk adorning her lips. "I'd really appreciate a quiet day."

She scoffs, leaning against one of the drab cement walls leading into my isolated alcove. "When have _you_ ever wanted a quiet day?"

"Things don't always have to explode for me to appreciate life," I respond dryly.

She waits, as if expecting me to have another snappy retort. When I don't say anything further, her smirk fades into a small frown. "Well this is rather boring. Usually you're just rarin' to put your fists to work and lose."

I sink further into myself, dropping my head into my folded arms so I don't have to look at her anymore.

Always about the fight.

She kicks a pebble at me, and I ignore the fact it bounces off my head before rattling off somewhere on the ground.

"Seriously? Nothing? This fight isn't even worth having if you aren't putting any effort into it. Come on, get it together! We have a song and dance to perform!" She cracks her knuckles.

I sigh and rise to my feet. Her smirk is instantly in place as she bounces onto the balls of her feet.

"Have fun performing solo." I wave halfheartedly as I dip under her first strike and walk past her.

She whips around, mouth agape as I shuffle by the door leading inside the building.

"You're joking!" she blurts, stalking after me. "This is all part of the gig! Take this seriously and fight me!"

A spark of irritation rushes through me and I whirl around with a scowl. "Is it?!" I demand hotly. "Is it always just about the fight?! About what the right colors are?!"

"What an earth do colors have to do with anything?!" She throws her arms up in exasperation. "We have a thing! We do it! One of us loses, we all go home! Rinse, cycle, repeat!"

"EXACTLY!" I bellow. I throw my arms wide as tears of frustration burn at my eyes and beg for release. "Repeat, repeat, repeat!" I fling my arms in several tight circles. "Is that what it's always going to be?!" The unshed tears help blur the colors.

"Why wouldn't it be?!" Her voice wavers a bit with uncertainty.

Damn it! There's that god forsaken flicker of orange again!

"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT IT ANYMORE!" I yell at the top of my lungs. I close my eyes tight in hopes to keep out the flashes of color.

Absolute-dead-silence.

It surrounds me with horrifying clarity.

"Then what the hell do you want?" It's barely a whisper on the wind, tinged with pain and confusion. "You don't have to choose this." This line is said with bitterness, resignation.

"I want a color I can't have." A mirthless laugh escapes me as I rub my forehead in frustration. "Because a color like that doesn't exist in our world."

"Seriously, you need to start making sense. This color business is pissing me off." There is a scuff of noise as she shifts. The caution in her voice that isn't typically present echoes as loudly as the unsaid words hanging between us.

"Color makes perfect sense…" My eyes drift away from her, staring off into the gray clouds hovering in the distance. "There is far too much green in our world." A faint smirk passes across my lips. "It has a way of bleeding into everything and blinding us to other possibilities." I shake my head. "I've tried to find a way to suffuse other colors into it, to mix things up, but it ends up very… messy. If I were to switch the colors for real… it would irrevocably change everything." I turn to again, a pained smile straining across my visage. "Could you do it? Could you change everything so thoroughly?" A disbelieving laugh escapes my throat. "Would you even _want_ to?"

"What would be changing? What the hell _could_ change?" She shifts again. "And why would it even matter what _I_ would want?"

"Because that is where everything teeters." I sigh and turn away. "Look, we'll… do our 'thing' later. I'm… just not really in the mood today."

"Oh no, you're not walking away! The hell did you put all that color crap on the table for if you're just going to keep ignoring it?!"

I keep my back towards her. "Let it go. It doesn't matter anyway. Apparently I can't say what really needs to be said because I can't even find the right words. Trying it in any other way is just going to piss you off more." I shake my head. "I'd rather let it lie, forgotten."

"And if I don't?" she demands. "What if I want to know what the hell you're talking about? Proper words can't be _that_ hard to find."

"Because it makes it _real_."

"Isn't that the point?" she asks sarcastically.

"You're not listening." I twist my head around enough I can see her vague form out of the corner of my eye. "If it's _real_ it can't be _forgotten_." I close my eyes again. "If it can't be forgotten, it's going to tear me apart. I'm… not sure I could handle that. Not… not anymore. Not now."

"What could be so terrible that you can't deal with it?" Her voice is scathing now, arms crossed as she juts her chin at me challengingly.

"Damn it, _must_ you be this stubborn? I don't want the same thing, I want something _more_!" I shoot her a sharp glare. "Isn't that reason enough to not be okay? Isn't that reason enough to avoid finding answers for something I could half pretend doesn't exist? That maybe, I can keep blotting out the colors so I don't have to _see_ anything?"

She throws her hands up, huffing loudly. "See _what?!_ More of _what?!_ "

"That's the crux of the whole damned problem!" I pull on my hair, kicking at the rubble at my feet. "I don't _want_ you to know!"

"WHY?!"

"Cause YOU are the damned problem!" I blurt.

I freeze, muscles locking painfully. Even though I can't force myself to look at her head-on, I can still see she's just as motionless.

"What do you mean?" Her voice catches, hands flexing in indecision.

" _Please…_ " I beg. "Please, just let it go." I can hardly hear my own voice and wonder if she can hear me at all.

She scowls unseen, taking a single step forward and making me flinch. "If it was hate, that would be easy to understand." Her voice has firmed slightly. "You already proved you were capable of hating me. As far as I'm concerned, enemies, even arch rivals don't have much further to go in that direction." She takes another step.

I back away, bringing my arms up absently to wrap around myself.

"For a moment…" her voice trails off a breath. She visibly swallows. "For a moment, there was a flicker of friendship. You were leery of it, but you handled it with little aplomb."

She moves closer, and I back up until I feel the edge of the roof on the back of my calves. "Don't."

"There aren't many directions left this can take." She hovers right in front of me, just out of reach. "Why do colors have to matter at all?"

"Because you can lie to yourself with colors," I say bitterly, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the empty space between us. "You can blind yourself with them, play tricks on your own mind."

"But not your heart."

My chest aches painfully. "Please stop."

"You can't play with colors there. You can't trick it, can't blind it. The more you try, the less you succeed."

" _Stop_."

"If you wanted to play with colors, you missed the comet." She steps closer again, and I lean away. "This isn't something as trifle as colors."

I can't help the snort that escapes my lips. "As if the comet powers are _trifle_."

"Then quit trying to make _this_ trifling!" she seethes, hand darting out to latch on my arm when I wobble unsteadily over the lip of the roof. "Are you going to say what you want?" she demands.

My eyes snap to her green eyes with fierce challenge. Without hesitation, I grab her face and mash our lips together. It's quick, it's painful, and… everything I thought our first kiss would be.

I jerk away just as quickly as I'd dodged in, face set with steeled emotion. "You know what I want."

Her mouth works soundlessly for a moment.

My lip curls as I stare unblinking into her wide green eyes. " _Don't_ go making claims if you don't intend to keep them." I glance over my shoulder at the orange sunset seeping into a rose tinted sky. "There, just on the horizon… Those are the colors I've wanted to see."

Her brow puckers and her eye flick to the sunset behind me. "Those are the colors of an end," she says flatly.

"Settling on the fringes of a new beginning," I finish. A full blown wide smile splits my face. "If you're not afraid of it, you know where to find me."

I shove her backwards and nimbly roll over the edge of the roof. I land gracefully on the fire escape before twisting up and over the rail onto a small ledge. From the ledge I hop down to the ground. I glance up to see her face peering at me from over the edge.

Before she can move, I pivot around and clamber onto the black gleaming sportster motorcycle waiting for me in the alley. I press my finger onto a fingerprint reader and grin as the motorcycle purrs to life.

Her body is already swinging over the edge of the roof. I thrust my helmet on my head and put the bike in gear, screeching out of the alley and onto the deserted road leading out of the industrial area of the city.

My heart is pounding, my limbs tingling. Unseen beneath my tinted visor, a wicked smile greets the colors of the sunset.


End file.
